About the Atlas

• Aims
• Objectives
• Project Scope

Geoscience Australia, with its supporting partners Minerals Council of Australia and Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, is developing the Australian Atlas of Mineral Resources, Mines, and Processing Centres.

The Atlas aims to:

1. provide an authoritative understanding of Australia's known mineral and energy (solid fuel) assets, mines and production/processing centres (existing and planned);
2. present factual data that can assist with planning, decision making, investment, education and management of the environment;
3. complement other national data sets and coverages dealing with soils and land use, population, agriculture, climate, water and vegetation; and
4. show where, and how, the mining industry is placed to continue its contribution to regional development in Australia and sustain its role as a major exporter of mineral commodities.

The Atlas will deliver authoritative minerals and mining information (historical, scientific, economic, societal and environmental) to individual Australians and provide a virtual-showcase of the industry for global audiences.

The Atlas is being developed as a cutting-edge working tool for use whenever and wherever customers can access the Internet. Its functionality will exploit the power of modern PCs and allow users to examine and evaluate digital spatial data related to the minerals industry against an array of resource, demographic, infrastructure, economic, social and environmental dimensions.

The key objective of the Atlas is to serve the needs of diverse clients in many ways, including as:

1. a reliable and up-to-date reference with links to site specific and more detailed information;
2. an aid to visualise and understand complex issues relating to regional development of mining and mineral processing activities, and identify/promote opportunities for employment in remote areas;
3. an interactive decision support system with small-scale, map-making capability;
4. a framework and instrument for education; and
5. aid in industry research.

The Atlas development has been broken into 3 stages.

Stages:

1. Design and online commissioning of the Atlas' core components, involving development of a public 'window' on mineral resources information in Geoscience Australia's OZMIN database and compilation of spatial data for mines and processing centres. (completion June 2003)
2. Enhancement of the Atlas's functionality, including increased disk space to provide online access to satellite imagery for the whole of Australia, and implementation of the latest MapServer software, scheduled for release in 2003-04, which will make it possible to more effectively examine data relating to new projects, through the incorporation of a wider range of data layers from sources such as the Australian Spatial Data Directory. (2003 - 2004)
3. Ongoing administration and updating of the Atlas. (2004 onwards)